As we speak, bloggers are gathering in Las Vegas for the Blog World New Media Expo, billed as “the world’s largest blogging and new media conference”. There are several sessions on health and new media.
I came across this event while doing some research recently on new media and health, which also led me to some blogs that might be of interest. I found many of these at this link to “50 excellent health blogs”.
• The Effect Measure is a public health blog in the US authored by senior public health scientists and practitioners whose identity is kept anonymous, so they can speak frankly. Here’s what they say about themselves: “In epidemiology an effect is the endpoint of a causal mechanism. An effect measure is an estimate of the influence of a particular factor on a population’s health. The Editors of Effect Measure are senior public health scientists and practitioners. Their names would be immediately recognizable to many in the public health community. They prefer to keep their online and public lives separate to allow maximum freedom of expression. Paul Revere was a member of the first local Board of Health in the United States (Boston, 1799). The Editors sign their posts “Revere” to recognize the public service of a professional forerunner better known for other things.”
• The Pump Handle is another public health blog, mainly written by US epidemiologists. It’s “a place for people interested in public health and the environment to discuss the issues that interest us, particularly when they’re not getting the treatment we think they deserve in the mainstream media.
The story of the pump handle is familiar to any first-semester public health student: During the London cholera epidemic of 1854, John Snow examined maps of cholera cases and traced the disease to water from a local pump. At the time, the prevailing theory held that cholera spread through the air, rather than water, so Snow faced criticism from others in the science community – not to mention resistance from the water companies. He finally convinced community leaders to remove the pump’s handle to prevent further exposure.
More than a century later, thousands of people still die from cholera each year, and providing clean drinking water to the world’s entire population is a far-off goal. The Pump Handle symbolizes both a public health victory and the challenges facing the public health and environmental fields today.”
• Health Wonk Review is a biweekly compendium of the best of the health policy blogs. More than two dozen health policy, infrastructure, insurance, technology, and managed care bloggers participate by contributing their best recent blog postings to a roving digest, with each issue hosted at a different participant’s blog. “For participants, it’s a way to network and share ideas, and for those readers who don’t live in this space every day, it’s a way to sample some of the latest thinking and the ‘best of the best’.”
• Wall Street Journal’s blog on health and the business of health
• CDC’s Public Health Matters blog
• Covering Health is a blog maintained by the Association of Health Care Journalists. It is intended to help keep journalists who report on health and health care issues informed about the latest news in the field, aware of noteworthy stories and reports, and able to connect with colleagues.
• World Health News, from the Harvard School of Public Health
• Global Health Ideas from some social entrepreneurs
• Gary Schwitzer, University of Minnesota School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Publisher, HealthNewsReview.org
• Hooked: Ethics, Medicine and Pharma from Professor Howard Brody, Director of Institute for Medical Humanities, at University of Texas
• Dr Keven Pho is a primary care doctor in New Hampsire and a prolific blogger who seems worth reading. I’m giving him a trial anyway. He says he was voted the best medical blog of 2008 (I presume that’s in the US), and has over 20,000 RSS subscribers and 15,000 Twitter followers.
Let me know if there are any others worth a mention.
And thanks to Becky Freeman at USyd for putting me on the trail of the Journal of Medical Internet Research. How quickly the world of media and health has and is changing….
BTW, Croakey is now twittering. You can stay abreast of the latest posts here…
And thanks to Pharmacy News for giving Croakey a mention in its cover story on blogging and pharmacy (October issue). As you may have noticed, Croakey is a relative newcomer to the new media world and still finding a way. So it’s nice to get some feedback that Croakey is “out there”…
I think Healthbeat by Maggie Mahar is a good, leftie (for the US!), blog on a wide range of health issues.
http://www.healthbeatblog.org/
Thanks for the tip Jennifer, I’ve added it to Croakey’s links. Trouble is, there is so much good stuff out there to read..but where’s the time for doing the reading!